PDNPulsehttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com
A professional photography blog by the editors of Photo District NewsFri, 09 Dec 2016 18:43:50 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.4Great Weekend Reads in Photography & Filmmakinghttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/great-weekend-reads-photography-filmmaking-121016.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/great-weekend-reads-photography-filmmaking-121016.html#respondFri, 09 Dec 2016 18:43:50 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16408Our picks of the best reads from around the web for photographers and filmmakers.

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/great-weekend-reads-photography-filmmaking-121016.html/feed0Natalie Brasington’s Breakthrough Portraits of Amy Schumerhttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/natalie-brasingtons-breakthrough-portraits-with-amy-schumer.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/natalie-brasingtons-breakthrough-portraits-with-amy-schumer.html#respondWed, 07 Dec 2016 23:56:27 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16386Natalie Brasington, a New York based photographer specializing in conceptual portraits of comedians, explains how she got started, and shares practical advice for aspiring celebrity photographers. In the video below, she shows how she conceived some of her early portraits of comedian Amy Schumer, and more recent portraits of other comedians. PDN: What draws you...

]]>Natalie Brasington, a New York based photographer specializing in conceptual portraits of comedians, explains how she got started, and shares practical advice for aspiring celebrity photographers. In the video below, she shows how she conceived some of her early portraits of comedian Amy Schumer, and more recent portraits of other comedians.

PDN: What draws you to comedians?
Natalie Brasington: I love comedy. I love the honesty of it. Comedy and hip hop and graffiti are not classical art forms, but they engage people in a very real way [with] commentary about society. I think there’s a lot of depth and soul to comedy and I think humor is so cathartic. And I’m also really interested and passionate about social issues.

PDN: Why don’t you believe in the idea of a “big break” in a celebrity photographer’s career?
NB: Maybe years ago there was such a thing as a big break, but I don’t think that exists anymore. There are photographers older than myself who will reference photographs in a magazine like Rolling Stone as their big break. When I had a full-page picture in Rolling Stone magazine, I knew better than to wait for my phone to start ringing off the hook.

We’re in such a media-saturated time and culture, and celebrities are generating so much of their own media, that I just don’t think it’s enough to have a celebrity in [your portfolio]. It certainly gives you some credibility. But your style and what you’re going to bring to each photo shoot is, I think, far more important than just having a celebrity in your book.

PDN: Tell me about the celebrity shoot that got your career going.
NB: I was really lucky. Amy Schumer was hosting a show on MySpace TV’s online channel called BFF [in 2009, before she was famous] and a photographer who had shot the pilot episode as a favor to the director wasn’t interested in the job [for the whole season]. So I volunteered myself. I had been working on a lot of personal work, I had a portfolio, and an online presence, thank goodness, and I got the job.

[Afterwards] she asked me if I would photograph the theater company she co-founded, called The Collective. So I worked on a few different projects with The Collective. All of [the shoots with Amy Schumer] were launch points to the next thing. But there’s rarely that point where the floodgates are going to open. You really have to be promoting yourself and your work, and hope it catapults you to the next project. That’s continual. That doesn’t let up.

There really needs to be something that you are thought of as: This is the photographer that has this sensibility or has this style. One single celebrity won’t seal that deal for you. You really need to decide what your viewpoint is and build a book and a website around that.

PDN: What’s your advice for doing that?
NB: If you’re interested in shooting celebrities, you have to ask yourself: Why? What story do I want to tell? Is it that I’m interested in really honest, stripped down portraits? Am I interested in creating colorful conceptual portraits? Am I interested in doing documentary work? So asking yourself how and why it is that you want to shoot celebrities, I think is a really good jumping off point.

We live in a city with an incredible amount of talent. There are lesser known comedians. There are actors. There are dancers. There are people who need photography and will collaborate with you gladly. Show people how you would shoot a celebrity. You know, kind of like: Dress for the job you want.

PDN: How long did it take you to find your style?
NB: For me it was a process of doing. Art school is all about analysis, you know, analysis-paralysis, and asking yourself ethereal questions. And then you have to keep a roof over your head. So for me, that was assisting, and that was where I really learned a ton and honed in on practical skills with lighting and gear and building up your muscles so you can actually tote your own gear around, and things like that.

And then you have to take all of those things and combine them. I found that just sitting back and thinking: ‘Well, what do I want to do, and how do I want to take pictures?’ was really non-productive. I had to just be interested in something, and then go do it. So for me it was shooting a demolition derby near my hometown, and shooting comedians and actors and DJs and then just saying: What about these things is similar? Where’s the common thread? What’s the through line here? And sitting down after amassing enough work to go, OK, what is the sensibility that I’m bringing to all these different projects?

PDN: How long did it take you to figure out the answer to that?
Probably three, four years, of really diligent work. Ask me in five years, and I might have a different idea about what it is I’m interested in or what I’m doing. But I think, for me, it was just a matter of trying to shoot a lot, and [seeing] where does that go. I was shooting constantly while I was assisting. I would take some technical skill I learned on set and then try and shoot for it. I would barter with photographers, offering free work in exchange for borrowing their gear. I was scrappy. I would do a lot to try to make things accessible to myself so I could amass a lot of work. Figuring out what it was that makes a Natalie picture a Natalie picture was a process of years.

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/natalie-brasingtons-breakthrough-portraits-with-amy-schumer.html/feed0Filmmaking Fight: The iPhone 7 vs. Red Weaponhttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/filmmaking-fight-iphone-7-vs-red-weapon.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/filmmaking-fight-iphone-7-vs-red-weapon.html#respondTue, 06 Dec 2016 13:45:24 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16380In July of last year, we profiled the film Tangerine, which was shot entirely on an iPhone 5s. While shooting a feature film on an iPhone entailed plenty of compromises and workarounds, the end results were nonetheless impressive. So Parker Walbeck’s comparison of the iPhone 7 Plus’s footage against a Red Weapon isn’t entirely contrived....

]]>In July of last year, we profiled the film Tangerine, which was shot entirely on an iPhone 5s. While shooting a feature film on an iPhone entailed plenty of compromises and workarounds, the end results were nonetheless impressive.

So Parker Walbeck’s comparison of the iPhone 7 Plus’s footage against a Red Weapon isn’t entirely contrived. And the results of this admittedly limited test show that, outdoors at least, the iPhone 7 Plus can bring the goods.

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/filmmaking-fight-iphone-7-vs-red-weapon.html/feed0Patagonia’s New Catalogue Uses Florian Schulz’s Photos to Push Arctic Refuge Conservationhttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/patagonias-new-catalogue-uses-florian-schulzs-photos-push-arctic-conservation.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/patagonias-new-catalogue-uses-florian-schulzs-photos-push-arctic-conservation.html#respondMon, 05 Dec 2016 20:27:30 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16366Patagonia is using their recent winter catalogue to raise awareness of an environmental issue they’ve been working on for years: Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling and other resource exploitation. The outdoor clothing and gear company licensed images for the catalogue and its communications from conservation photographer Florian Schulz, who is currently...

As part of their effort to urge conservation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Patagonia and Florian Schulz partnered to offer a signed, limited-edition print of this Schulz photograph of Porcupine caribou migrating to the refuge to customers who donate $250 to the Alaska Wilderness League.

Patagonia is using their recent winter catalogue to raise awareness of an environmental issue they’ve been working on for years: Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling and other resource exploitation. The outdoor clothing and gear company licensed images for the catalogue and its communications from conservation photographer Florian Schulz, who is currently working on a film about the refuge. That catalogue shows the importance of keeping the refuge wild. It also urges customers to support the Gwich’in people, who are working to protect their homeland within the refuge, and to donate to the Alaska Wilderness League, a non-profit organization that campaigns to preserve Alaska’s wilderness. The catalogue comes with a postcard that people can mail to President Obama, asking him to follow through on his efforts to convince Congress to designate the refuge as protected wilderness.

Patagonia also selected one of Schulz’s images to make 250 signed, limited-edition archival prints, which they’re offering at their retail stores nationwide as a gift to customers who donate $250 to the Alaska Wilderness League. Each $250 donation will be matched by Patagonia, up to $50,000. The total donation to Alaska Wilderness League could reach $100,000.

“It’s really about using [the catalogue] to bring awareness to a greater issue,” says Patagonia Director of Photography Eugénie Frerichs. “There’s product in there too, because at the end of the day we’re an apparel company, but our customers care about these issues, and so we can use that communication channel to take a much deeper dive into a topic, and use it as an opportunity to educate and inspire action.”

Patagonia had put out a general call to photographers and environmental groups for images from the refuge. A conservationist recommended Schulz, who has worked over the past couple of years in the refuge, living in and documenting the wilderness for months. In 2015, President Obama used Schulz’s footage in a video announcing a conservation plan for the area, and Schulz is working on a plan to release the film so that people can fully appreciate the land and the need to protect it.

After Frerichs saw Schulz’s work, she decided to base the catalogue around his imagery. “His commitment to the place is so awesome, I really wanted to highlight that and celebrate that,” Frerichs says.

“I feel like we completely overlap with our beliefs, with how we cherish wild nature,” Schulz says of his partnership with Patagonia. “What I also love is that we can work together [with the limited-edition print offering] to help fundraise for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

In addition to Schulz’s photographs, the catalogue includes images by Kahlil Hudson and Tyler Hughen of Finback Films, a production company that produced a short, Patagonia-commissioned documentary about the Gwich’in. The film is the first in a series of documentaries called “Granted,” which highlight the work of grassroots environmental organizations that the company supports. The catalogue and film tell the story not only of the refuge, but also of the Gwich’in’s connection to the land and its resources, which they’ve relied on for subsistence for tens of thousands of years. The film and catalogue discuss the Porcupine caribou in particular, which use the coastal plain within the refuge to raise their calves. Scientists estimate the Porcupine caribou have relied on this land for 2 million years. Polar bear, muskoxen, arctic foxes, snowy owls and more than 200 species of bird are just some of the other animals that rely on the Refuge.

Few companies pursue corporate responsibility with the same energy as Patagonia, and photographers and filmmakers play a key role in the company’s efforts to educate and inspire action. From their campaign for dam removal to the preservation of British Columbia’s Purcell Mountains, to the anti-consumerist Worn Wear initiative, which encourages people to fix their gear rather than discarding it, the privately held company has used their platform to pursue a social and environmental causes. Most recently, they pledged to donate all 2016 Black Friday sales to non-profit organizations and raised more than $10 million in a single day. “Patagonia is a company, but it feels like it can act like an individual,” Schulz says. “If they are excited about something, they’ll just make a decision and make something happen.”

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/patagonias-new-catalogue-uses-florian-schulzs-photos-push-arctic-conservation.html/feed0Great Weekend Reads in Photography & Filmmakinghttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/great-weekend-reads-photography-filmmaking-12316.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/great-weekend-reads-photography-filmmaking-12316.html#respondFri, 02 Dec 2016 19:58:00 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16357Some of the best reads from around the web this week for photographers and filmmakers.

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/12/great-weekend-reads-photography-filmmaking-12316.html/feed0Photographer Sues VICE for Unauthorized Use of Expectant Couplehttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/photographer-sues-vice-unauthorized-use-expectant-couple.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/photographer-sues-vice-unauthorized-use-expectant-couple.html#respondWed, 30 Nov 2016 22:04:28 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16346Photographer Jana Romanova has sued VICE Media for willful copyright infringement and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for publishing a photo from her “Waiting” series without permission. Romanova’s suit, filed in the Eastern District of New York on November 23, alleges that VICE violated her copyright when it published one of her...

Photographer Jana Romanova has sued VICE Media for willful copyright infringement and violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for publishing a photo from her “Waiting” series without permission. Romanova’s suit, filed in the Eastern District of New York on November 23, alleges that VICE violated her copyright when it published one of her photos of parents-to-be online with an article titled “What It’s Like to Be a Millennial in a Sexless Relationship” and on the VICE Facebook page. Romanova has recently registered the image with the US Copyright office, and is seeking both actual damages and statutory damages allowed under the DMCA.

Romanova’s “Waiting” series, which depicts pregnant women and their partners asleep in bed, has been published in several publications, including Stern, Fast Company, Daily Mail and China Daily. The series was also exhibited in several international photo festivals, and images from “Waiting” were included in a group show at the Andrea Meislin Gallery in New York in 2013.

The image was also published, along with an interview with Romanova about her “Waiting” project, in a 2012 article in the website of VICE UK.

According to her lawyer, Richard Liebowitz of Valley Stream, New York, Romanova granted VICE permission to use her photos only in the context of an interview about her work. Regarding the use of one of her images in a 2016 article about millennial sex, her lawsuit states, “Vice did not license the Photograph from the Plaintiff for its article, nor did Vice have Plaintiff’s permission or consent to publish the Photograph on the Websites.”

Liebowitz says the image was first published in 2010 in an article in Russian Reporter, along with Romanova’s photo credit, in print and then online. The lawsuit alleges that Vice copied the image from the Russian Reporter and removed the copyright information, a violation of the DMCA.

Creators are eligible for statutory damages for copyright infringement only if they register their copyrights in a timely manner, usually before infringement occurs. According to Liebowitz, Romanova registered the copyright to her image only after she saw a copy in the 2016 VICE article. As a result, she’s eligible only for actual damages, which she must prove in court.

If Romanova can also prove DMCA violations, she may be eligible to receive between $2,500 and $25,000 in statutory damages for those claims.

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/photographer-sues-vice-unauthorized-use-expectant-couple.html/feed0Photojournalist Ed Ou Denied Entry to U.S. on Way to Standing Rockhttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/photojournalist-ed-ou-denied-entry-u-s-way-standing-rock.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/photojournalist-ed-ou-denied-entry-u-s-way-standing-rock.html#respondWed, 30 Nov 2016 20:25:16 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16344Canadian photojournalist Ed Ou was detained by U.S. border security on October 1 while trying to board a flight from Vancouver, Canada, to Bismarck, North Dakota. He was traveling to Standing Rock Indian Reservation on assignment for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to cover the protests there. As someone who has lived and worked extensively in...

]]>Canadian photojournalist Ed Ou was detained by U.S. border security on October 1 while trying to board a flight from Vancouver, Canada, to Bismarck, North Dakota. He was traveling to Standing Rock Indian Reservation on assignment for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to cover the protests there. As someone who has lived and worked extensively in the Middle East, Ou has frequently been questioned when crossing borders, but as he told the Columbia Journalism Review, this particular encounter with U.S. border agents was different. He was detained for several hours and was made to explain all of his travel for the previous five years. “Then they asked my why I was going to Standing Rock and why I was so interested in that. They wanted to know the people I was going to meet, what I was going to cover,” Ou told CJR. Hours later, Ou had his personal journals photocopied and his phones tampered with against his will. Ou was finally denied entry to the U.S., and was advised that he was on a “person of interest” list and should not try to enter the country again. When he sought further information about his status, he was told it was classified.

Columbia Journalism Review has a full account of Ou’s experiences, here. It includes a useful security tip about what he does with his mobile phones when crossing borders.

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/photojournalist-ed-ou-denied-entry-u-s-way-standing-rock.html/feed0Poor, Larson and Shindelman Win $10K John Gutmann Photography Fellowshiphttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/poor-larson-and-shindelman-win-10k-john-gutmann-photography-fellowship.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/poor-larson-and-shindelman-win-10k-john-gutmann-photography-fellowship.html#respondTue, 29 Nov 2016 17:38:12 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16332Nigel Poor and photography collaborators Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman have each won $5,000 ($10,000 total) as part of the 2016 John Gutmann Photography Fellowship—an annual award given to emerging creative photographers. The award honors the late John Gutmann, a Bay Area photographer who captured everyday scenes of American life during the mid to late 1900’s....

]]>Nigel Poor and photography collaborators Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman have each won $5,000 ($10,000 total) as part of the 2016 John Gutmann Photography Fellowship—an annual award given to emerging creative photographers. The award honors the late John Gutmann, a Bay Area photographer who captured everyday scenes of American life during the mid to late 1900’s.

Poor, a photographer and photography professor based in San Francisco, is recognized for her work documenting life inside the San Quentin prison. Her project includes making prints from the prison’s archive which she then shares with the incarcerated men who interpret and physically interact with the photographs. “The evocative results house memory, personal experience, and gives voice to an invisible population,” says curator Reagan Louie, one of the judges of the Gutmann Fellowship.

Nate Larson and Marni Shindelman‘s project, Geolocation, uses publicly available embedded GPS information in Twitter updates to track the locations of user posts. They then make photographs to mark the location in the real world. For example, they photographed sites linked to #ThanksPutinForThis in St. Petersburg and Moscow. “Innovative and resourceful, they are exploring the various ways new media, digital, social are being deployed [and] consumed,” says Louie.

Photographer Richard Misrach and Sandra Phillips, emeritus curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, served with Louie on the jury for this year’s Fellowship award.

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/poor-larson-and-shindelman-win-10k-john-gutmann-photography-fellowship.html/feed0The President-Elect Objects to a News Photo Showing his Double Chinhttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/president-elect-objects-news-photo-showing-double-chin.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/president-elect-objects-news-photo-showing-double-chin.html#respondTue, 22 Nov 2016 21:16:51 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16293You’ve probably read by now that, 59 days before he will take an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” including the First Amendment, the president-elect held an off-the-record meeting with several news executives, and criticized the press for its “outrageous” coverage of him. In particular, he singled out NBC...

]]>You’ve probably read by now that, 59 days before he will take an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” including the First Amendment, the president-elect held an off-the-record meeting with several news executives, and criticized the press for its “outrageous” coverage of him. In particular, he singled out NBC News for running a photo of him that showed him with a double chin. According to reports, he asked that they run “nicer” pictures of him.

As the editor of a publication dedicated to helping photographers do their jobs well, without fear or favor, I was disturbed that the president-elect could be working the umpire—displaying outrage in hopes of getting more favorable treatment in the future—for instance, getting photo editors to pause before they publish a photo that might provoke his ire.

I also wondered: Of all the photos of Donald Trump that NBC has used, which one so needled him that he would take a moment to discuss it instead of more substantive issues?

I went looking for published photos of him with a double chin—on NBC News and the wire services it uses. He might have been referring to this one:
Or this one:

Or this one:

Or this photo from Getty Images:

Or this one from Getty Images:

Or this one from Getty Images:

Or this one from Reuters:

But why single out NBC News?

Here’s another photo released by Getty Images. This photo was published by Breitbart News, the “alt-right” outlet that was chaired by Steve Bannon, now Donald Trump’s pick as top White House advisor. This is how he was depicted by a source the president-elect considers favorable.

I have a double chin, so I know: Unless the photographer is standing on a ladder, there’s no flattering way to photograph someone with a double chin. If any photographers in the press pool covering the White House or Trump Tower are afraid to take a photo of the incoming commander-in-chief without benefit of a step stool, I feel compelled to point out two things. One, the fight against the double chin is a lost cause. Second, the courts have consistently supported free speech and ruled that, in cases of libel and defamation, the truth is sufficient defense. Which, I’d add, is another of the president-elect’s grievances.

]]>http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/president-elect-objects-news-photo-showing-double-chin.html/feed0Elton John Is an Avid Photo Collectorhttp://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/elton-john-photo-collector.html
http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/2016/11/elton-john-photo-collector.html#respondTue, 22 Nov 2016 20:37:49 +0000http://pdnpulse.pdnonline.com/?p=16304The world knows Elton John for his musical prowess, but beyond the piano and falsetto, the man is a self-described “avaricious” photo collector. Tate takes you inside John’s impressive collection and speaks to the iconic pop star about his love for photography. Enjoy.